To ask what your favourite classic novel is?

[SpectacleLectacle]

I have a plan to read some classics this summer I’ve never got round to... what’s your absolute favourite classic novel? And why?

I guess I’m thinking mainly of those that would be in the ‘Classics’ (in terms of fiction rather than the subject!) section of a bookshop but feel free to diverge from that

Madame Bovary is one of mine, but there are others

I loved Tess and Jude. Hardy's scenery descriptions can't get a bit boring though. My favourite is Catch 22. He fell in love with the prostitute with green knickers as she was the only woman he could have sex with and not fall in love

Oh Far from the Madding crowd. Possibly my favourite Hardy

I find that I fall asleep when I try to read, but audible I do enjoy.

I tried Little Women (have tried to read that a few times in the past) and still can't get past chapter 1.

I like things that are easy to follow. I find Agatha Christie easy to read and loved Animal Farm. Currently I'm listening to 1984 and so far so good.

The Lord of the rings, noticed the great Gatsby above that's the worst book I've ever read.

Couldn't stand Catch 22. It starts off OK and then just repeats itself over, and over, and over....

Interesting idea Maiden. “I wonder how many of these were read for O’Level/GCSE and became favourites.”

Reading things for GCSE put me off them completely. The only book I read at GCSE that I liked was To Kill a Mockingbird. And that’s because I read it through myself before we did it in class. And it is such a great book, I tuned out to the discussions in class about it! In general, I ended up hating the books we did for GCSE. I hated being told what to think, or told which bits were significant, or told what the interpretation should be. We did the Catcher in the Rye, and The Lord of the Flies. I disliked the first (didn’t like Holden Caufield). But I utterly detested everything about Lord of the Flies. Still hate it.
Going through them sentence by sentence ruined them for me.
I am already reading Shakespeare to DD, the children’s story versions, so they aren’t ruined for her the way they were for me. Only took to Shakespeare when I watched the Much Ado About Nothing film with Kenneth Branagh. Realised how easy it was to understand when you saw it, loved Shakespeare ever since.

Watership Down
Tess of the D’Urbervilles

^ I read both of them cover to cover in the school holidays, so escaped the torture of going through each chapter, dissecting each sentence and analysing the characters. How to ruin the love of reading!

The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite book, I've read it several times.
Vanity Fair is hilarious and brilliant. David Copperfield is my favourite Dickens. For a shorter read try Oliver Twist (it is harrowing though).
He seems to be a bit marmite but personally I love Thomas Hardy, I'd pick The Mayor of Casterbridge. Also Wilkie Collins The Woman in White.
The Grapes of Wrath is very heavy going but I still think of it 20 years after reading.
Les Miserables is brilliant (I've never seen the musical so I only know it as a novel).
Lastly, it's a children's classic but I only recently read Watership Down and it's absolutely wonderful.
Sorry, turns out I have lots of favourites

Definitely Rebecca for me.

Pride and prejudice and black beauty

1984 and Animal Farm, the two best Orwell novels in my opinion. Rebecca, also Daphne du Mauriers short stories (some of which are terrifying), The Name of the Rose, Grapes of Wrath. Also like Joanne Harris novels. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola. Not really tackled any of the classics by the Brontes or Jane Austen, keep feeling I should

Pride and Prejudice as it is so funny. If you like that then also Emma
A Little Princess is better than Secret Garden (same author)
I loved Count of Monte Cristo - don't be put off by how thick it is it is quite fast paced
Cranford is quite fun in an Archers sort of way
The Scarlet Pimpernel is again quite fast paced
I don't like DIckens much but Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist are good entry level novels for him
Anya Seton's Katherine is nice if you want something romantic.

1984, hands down my favourite book ever.

Don't Look at Me Like That- Diana Athill

The Woman in White is unputdownable. Gripping!

I also love Evelyn Waugh Sword of Honour Trilogy. It's the great deal of sadness mixed in with humour and fabulous characters.

Both entirely different.

Contemporary classics (at a pinch)

Pat Barker Regeneration Trilogy

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Aah, Sarah Waters! So many good ones.

I haven't read much for a long time but am newly retired and plan to read more now. Some great suggestions here.

However I have recently read The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and really enjoyed it.

Oh, speaking of funny classic novels - Three Men In A Boat. It’s a riot. That and any PG Wodehouse, and of course Auntie Mame. So, so brilliant.

Anything by Evelyn Waugh like
Decline and Fall
A Handful of Dust
Scoop.....

As well as..
Brideshead revisited ...I suppose...

Chrome Yellow or Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley

I love Wodehouse. I’ve just finished rereading the complete short Jeeves and Wooster stories. The characters are so perfectly drawn with so few words and his use of language is brilliant. I occasionally snort out loud at some of the tiniest phrases. A scaly business indeed!

Anything by EF Benson ( Mapp and Lucia), Nancy Mitford ( Love in a Cold Climate), PG Wodehouse,...but my absolute, absolute favourites are Three Men in a Boat. and Cold Comfort Farm..both hilarious!

Anything by Nabokov
Strangers on a Train and Carol (Patricia Highsmith)
The Magic Mountain and Buddenbrocks (Thomas Mann)
1984
The Metamorphosis (Kafka)
Simone (Lion Feuchtwanger)
Notre Dame (Victor Hugo)
The Great Gatsby
Wuthering Hights
The Sorrows of Young Werther, Faust I, Elective Affinities (Goethe)